THE TORTURER'S HORSE

by Robert A. Inman ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

The title comes from Auden and endorses the view of Mr. Inman, a new novelist of easy talent and much perception, that the world is a grey and nasty bit of business. The particular world described here is that of Allied-divided Austria of the early 1950's. The main characters are Walt Schaeffer, a lieutenant in his thirties who arrives in the village of Steinau to take over Love Company and make it tick; Leslie, his aesthetically frustrated and bored wife; Phil Langely, a cynical soldier about to leave the service; Musial, an enlisted pianist, homoerotically inclined. Leslie has an affair with Langely, Schaeffer becomes a captain and cuckold, Langely drives young Musial into perversion. And, as this tale moves toward murder, suicide and despair, love becomes as cold as the War developing around it. Even Love Company has its name changed to Lima, that high, thin-air city... The narrative is straightforward, the prose clean and exact. And no matter how much one disagrees with the finished piece, as with, say, the work of David Storey, there is no denying the authority of this auspicious debut.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION